NEA Gives $345,000 In Grants To 12 Connecticut Arts Groups

The National Endowment for the Artsgave out its lastest round of grants, giving 12 Connecicut arts organizations a total of $345,000 for various projects.

Outgoing Chairman Rocco Landesman announced the arts agency will award 832 grants totaling $23.3 million to not-for-profit arts groups in 47 states (plus District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) through the NEA's Art Works funding category.

"The supported projects span 13 artistic disciplines and fields and focus primarily on the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing works for the benefit of American audiences.," according to a statement from the NEA. "In addition, the NEA will award Creative Writing Fellowships to 40 outstanding poets for a total of $1 million. This grant announcement is the first of several for fiscal year 2013."

According to the press release, the following groups are receiving funds:

Connecticut Players Foundation, Inc. (aka Long Wharf Theatre), New Haven, $10,000CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater and Musical TheaterTo support the premiere production of January Joiner by Laura Jacqmin. Directed by Associate Artistic Director Eric Ting, January Joiner is set in an imagined weight-loss boot camp in coastal Florida and follows Myrtle and her sister Terry as they embark upon their shared goal of losing weight.

Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center, Inc., Waterford, $50,000CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater and Musical TheaterTo support the creation and development of new plays and musical theater works by emerging and mid-career artists at the National Playwrights Conference and the National Music Theater Conference. Approximately 1,600 manuscripts are received through an open-submission process that culminates in the selection of seven to ten plays and two to four musicals, that receive a rehearsal period and staged readings that are open to the public.

HartBeat Ensemble, Hartford, $10,000CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater and Musical TheaterTo support Project Turnpike by Cindy Martinez and Debra Walsh with direction by Co-Artistic Director Steven Ginsburg. Inspired by Raymond Bechard's 2011 book The Berlin Turnpike: A True Story of Human Trafficking in America and based on interviews with people impacted by sex trafficking in Connecticut, the play portrays a prostitute who re-examines the control and violence behind her life and work.

Hartford Stage Company, Inc. (aka Hartford Stage), $35,000CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater and Musical TheaterTo support the premiere of Breath & Imagination -- The Story of Roland Hayes by Daniel Beaty and starring classical and gospel recording artist Jubilant Sykes. (Pictured) Employing spirituals and classical music, the play chronicles the life of Roland, who was born the son of a slave in Georgia, discovered his voice singing spirituals in church, and became a world-renowned classical vocalist who later sang before kings and queens in Europe.

Real Art Ways, Inc., Hartford, CT, $30,000CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual ArtsTo support Step Up, a solo exhibition series for emerging artists and a 10th anniversary exhibition series of alumni artists' current work. Exhibitions for emerging artists will be accompanied by an artist talk and a critical essay published in print and on the web. Alumni artists selected to present new work are Mike Womak, Xaviera Simmons, Julian Montague, Zoë Sheehan-Saldaña, Kate Gilmore, and Nadya Volicer.

Spring Lake Productions, Inc., New Milford, CT, $15,000CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: DanceTo support the creation of a new dance theater work by Martha Clarke, in collaboration with former American Ballet Theatre soloist Alessandra Ferri. The inspiration for this new work of dance theater is Cheri, a novella written in 1920 by the French author Colette and the lead roles will be performed by Alessandra Ferri with current principal American Ballet Theatre dancer Herman Cornejo.

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (aka Wadsworth Atheneum), Hartford, $60,000CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: MuseumTo support the exhibition Burst of Light: Caravaggio and His Legacy. This exhibition is the first East Coast exhibition in more than 25 years to explore the impact that Caravaggio (1571-1610) had on artists throughout Europe. It will consist of approximately thirty paintings, divided into sections that reflect a cross section of genre, portraiture, history subjects, and religious scenes.

Wesleyan University, Middletown, $40,000CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: LiteratureTo support the publication and promotion of new books of poetry. Works by such poets as Kazim Ali, Rae Armantrout, Heather Christie, Brenda Coultas, Annie Finch, Peter Gizzi, Brenda Hillman, and Yusef Komunyakaa will be published and promoted. The press will promote the books through organized reading tours for each author and new digital initiatives including custom e-book and print-on-demand anthologies and free online teaching guides.

Yale University (on behalf of Yale Repertory Theatre), New Haven, $30,000CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater and Musical TheaterTo support the world premiere production of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1978 film In a Year with 13 Moons, adapted for the stage by Robert Woodruff and Bill Camp and directed by Robert Woodruff. Woodruff and Camp will be in residence at the theater throughout the rehearsal process and will collaborate with the theater's artistic and dramaturgical staff in the ongoing refinement of the text and exploration of the physical world of the production.